{"id":21792,"date":"2022-07-17T18:24:32","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T18:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=21792"},"modified":"2022-07-17T18:35:50","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T18:35:50","slug":"the-great-merger-the-rise-of-oligarchical-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2022\/07\/17\/the-great-merger-the-rise-of-oligarchical-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"The great merger – the rise of oligarchical politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article on the increasing merger of the state and media was first posted by Media Lens<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0THE GREAT MERGER THE RISE OF OLIGARCHICAL POLITICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Spectator party with Matt Hancock and Laura Kuenssberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Millions of people in the UK are beset by insecurities and worries about the rising cost of living. Fuel and energy prices are escalating, variously blamed on Brexit, Covid, and the war in Ukraine. A recent\u00a0survey<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0reported that 67% of Britons are worried about paying food and fuel bills, and 56% believe their household finances have worsened in the past 12 months.<\/p>\n

The NHS is experiencing huge pressures. Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor and the author of \u2018Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic\u2019,\u00a0said<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in March that the NHS:<\/p>\n

\u2018is not coping much better now than it was at Covid\u2019s peaks. We are drowning \u2013 in Covid patients, cancer patients, the patients on the waiting list backlogs, and the patients whose conditions have become infinitely more complex and harmful because they\u2019ve been waiting so long. There are so few staff \u2013 and those left are so burned out and traumatised \u2013 that patients are inevitably being neglected.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Too many people in this country are relying on food banks. Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, the\u00a0Trussell Trust network<\/strong><\/a>, the UK\u2019s largest foodbank organisation, distributed over 2.1 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis. This is an increase of 81% compared to the same period five years ago.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of disabled and chronically ill people are having to wait an average of\u00a0five months<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for disability benefits. Employees are working long hours on short-term and zero-hour contracts. There are persistent delays and poor services on public transport. And people have to wait inordinately long times to obtain driving licenses and passports.<\/p>\n

All of this is taking place against the reality of industrial action and rising public dissatisfaction with what passes for \u2018news\u2019 or \u2018politics\u2019 in the Westminster bubble, or any of the other bubbles inhabited by Western elites.<\/p>\n

Public trust in the \u2018mainstream\u2019 media has dropped dramatically in recent years. According to a\u00a0recent analysis<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by Press Gazette, BBC News experienced the biggest drop in public confidence, along with the Times and the Telegraph. BBC News, regularly touted by its managers and senior journalists as the \u2018gold standard\u2019 in reliability and accuracy, has seen trust in its journalism drop from 75% four years ago to 55% now.<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, that still leaves it the most trusted newsbrand in the UK, along with ITV news, also at 55%. Channel 4 News was just behind on 54%. Sky News saw trust in its output decline from 62% to 45%. The Guardian could only manage 48% (remarkably high, given its\u00a0record<\/strong><\/a>), down from 61%.<\/p>\n

Press Gazette summed up the findings:<\/p>\n

\u2018Major newsbrands have a crisis of trust\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Former Guardian journalist Jonathan Cook\u00a0observed<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018Is the reason all establishment media are seeing huge drops in audience trust the fault of Russian disinformation? Or is it because they act as brazen mouthpieces for the establishment? Be sure all these outlets will tell you it\u2019s down to Russia.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Commenting on the low trust figures, Cook added:<\/p>\n

\u2018half of audiences think our main news shows actually peddle fake news.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Rossalyn Warren, Reuters audience editor, recently\u00a0shared<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0a headline finding from the Oxford-based Reuters Institute that:<\/p>\n

\u201846% of people (mostly women and young people) actively avoid the news because it has a negative impact on their mood. That\u2019s up from 24% in 2017.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

The prevailing public mood was pithily\u00a0summed up<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by writer Umair Haque as a \u2018feeling of downward mobility\u2019. This, he said, is how many people feel today:<\/p>\n

\u2018They don\u2019t feel good. Confident. Assured. Optimistic. They feel\u2026worthless. Defeated. Helpless and hopeless. Traumatized and weary.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Haque continued:<\/p>\n

\u2018I can\u2019t take it anymore. I can\u2019t take it financially \u2014 how am I going to\u00a0<\/em>make ends meet<\/em><\/strong><\/a>? I can\u2019t take it economically \u2014 no matter how hard you work, little seems to change. I can\u2019t take it culturally \u2014 nothing, no one out there seems to help me, aid me, be there for me. I can\u2019t take it socially \u2014 this whole society feels like it\u2019s against me.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

There is, warned Haque, a \u2018tsunami of demoralisation\u2019 sweeping our societies:<\/p>\n

\u2018And as people grow demoralized, they grow\u00a0de-moralized.\u00a0Their moral centers and cores stop working. Only the strong survive, and the weak perish? I had better become ruthless, cunning, cruel. I must learn how to be a knife. Not a lever, not an open hand. A closed fist. In the bitter battle for self-preservation, the great virtues \u2014 empathy, grace, truth, knowledge \u2014 all themselves become needless luxuries and unaffordable indulgences.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

To some extent, in this harsh depiction, Haque was playing devil\u2019s advocate. But his point was clear. Many of us are struggling and perhaps tempted to protect and preserve what we have, in our own limited spheres; and woe betide anyone who gets in our way.<\/p>\n

However, rather than feel despair or harden our hearts, an alternative approach is to admit that many of us sometimes feel demoralised, even overwhelmed, and to share that feeling with others. As Haque said:<\/p>\n

\u2018You\u2019re not alone, my friend.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

That may be a small step on a new journey that we all need to take. Because we have to accept that real change is not going to come from our \u2018leaders\u2019, but from ourselves.<\/p>\n

Consider the rail strikes that have been taking place in the UK. The most overtly right-wing press \u2013 the likes of the \u2018soaraway Sun\u2019 \u2013\u00a0wailed<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0about \u2018a return to the 1970s\u2019 driven by\u00a0\u2018Marxist thugs\u2019<\/strong><\/a>. Such defamation is to be expected in the vitriolic pages of the billionaire-owned press.<\/p>\n

But how different is this from the more subtle vilification by an ostensibly neutral BBC journalist? On the eve of recent industrial action, Nick Robinson, former BBC political editor and now a Radio 4 Today presenter,\u00a0tweeted<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018Who\u2019s the man behind the strikes which are threatening a week of rail chaos? Is he a champion of workers who deserve a pay rise or a politically motivated dinosaur? You decide after listening to my half hour conversation with Mick Lynch\u00a0<\/em>@RMTunion<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

This might appear a relatively minor example. But it is symptomatic of the insidious, endemic anti-working class, anti-trade union stance embedded in BBC News \u2018impartiality\u2019. Robinson would never say of a senior Tory leader:<\/p>\n

\u2018Is he a public servant or an oligarchy-serving, greed-driven predator?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Scale up Robinson\u2019s attitudes, shared across leading BBC News presenters and editors, and you get what the BBC represents; indeed, what the BBC is: a\u00a0state-affiliated broadcaster<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0relentlessly pitching elite perspectives on domestic and international affairs. Challenges are routinely met with disdain, blanking or\u00a0arrogance<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Once You See How The Super Rich Run Everything Solely For Their Own Benefit You Cannot Unsee It\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his calm, articulate determination to get his points across in recent media interviews, many of them conducted risibly by highly-paid celebrity journalists, RMT union leader Mick Lynch has been a ray of hope for many people.<\/p>\n

Speaking live on BBC News from a picket line in London last month, Lynch\u00a0said<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018<\/em><\/strong>The whole country is suffering. And we have got a membership and a trade union that is prepared to fight for what we\u2019ve got. What the rest of the country suffers from is the lack of power.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Lynch expanded:<\/p>\n

\u2018The lack of the ability to organise and the lack of the wherewithal to take on these employers that are continually driving down wages, and making the working class in this country poorer, year on year on year, while the rich get richer and dividends are accelerated and the stock market is reasonably healthy. We\u2019ve got full employment and falling wages, and that is a situation that has never happened before and it cannot be tolerated by working people or by the trade union movement.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

In a Sky News interview, the union leader\u00a0highlighted<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0the deceptive rhetoric of many businesses:<\/p>\n

\u2018What we\u2019re seeing here is a smokescreen caused by Covid, and many employers are taking this opportunity. They\u2019re using what is a temporary phenomenon \u2013 Covid \u2013 and the temporary phenomenon of people being told\u00a0not\u00a0to go to work as a smokescreen to get rid of decent conditions, decent pay rates and decent agreements.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Making the kind of rational, reasonable points that rarely get an airing on state-corporate \u2018news\u2019 outlets, Lynch added:<\/p>\n

\u2018Everybody wants our cities, towns and villages to recover. The way we do that, and one of the most important aspects of that, is by having a decent public transport system that can be relied on, is safe and accessible. Cutting staff, cutting services and cutting funding is the opposite to that, and nobody in our community should tolerate that from this government of billionaires who tell everyone else they\u2019ve got to tighten their belts while they\u2019re raking it in.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Lynch\u2019s assured media performances, particularly when confronted with ludicrous questions, won him praise from many corners. A Guardian piece\u00a0observed<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that the union boss had been \u2018deft, scornful and effective.\u2019<\/p>\n

Political economist Matt Bishop\u00a0noted<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018What\u2019s remarkable about the Mick Lynch coverage is just how rarely we hear straightforward, working-class lefty union people in mainstream debate. Our media is dominated by a privately educated professional pundit class, their MP and banker chums, and it\u2019s all the poorer for it.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Exactly. Although, of course, it is not \u2018mainstream\u2019 debate. It is a tightly-controlled \u2018debate\u2019 that exists within the severely skewed bias of a state-corporate media, owned and managed by elite interests.<\/p>\n

Even Mark Solomons, a former industrial correspondent at the Sun\u00a0noted<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0in an article in the right-wing Spectator, that:<\/p>\n

\u2018Lynch is currently dominating TV screens and social media, making mincemeat out of politicians and broadcast interviewers alike.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Solomons added:<\/p>\n

\u2018He has stuck to his guns, confounded his opponents, and used simple, plain-talking language. He comes across as a working-class man who has made it to the top of his profession without selling out his principles, someone who makes it quite clear why the union is doing what it is doing irrespective of whether or not we agree with him.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

There was understanding and support from members of the public. An anonymous 53-year-old manager of an NHS mental health team living in south London\u00a0blamed<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0the government for the rail strikes:<\/p>\n

\u2018I wish the government would meaningfully and consistently fund public infrastructure and the key workers who keep our city and society running. I\u2019m tired of services being cut to the bone, everything being done on the cheap and workers being told to simply work harder to fill the gaps.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Giles Barret, a 38-year-old owner of a recording studio,\u00a0said<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018Collective action is the reason we have a weekend, among many other hard-won rights, and we must never stop fighting for them \u2013 capital certainly won\u2019t.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

And David Ling, a 69-year-old pensioner, also\u00a0pointed<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to the bigger picture behind the rail strikes:<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s so many problems in this country that are caused by austerity, privatisation and cutbacks that in the end it\u2019s gonna be a reaction. It\u2019s not just the railway workers \u2013 it\u2019s teachers and nurses and everything. In the end, something\u2019s got to give. You can\u2019t carry on cutting back and people scrimping and saving. It doesn\u2019t work.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Barnaby Raine of Novara Media\u00a0commented<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0approvingly of Mick Lynch\u2019s media performances:<\/p>\n

\u2018Our whole media debate is a surreal circus until someone bursts it open.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

An opinion poll\u00a0showed<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that public opinion had shifted dramatically in support of rail strikes following Lynch\u2019s media appearances. Previously, support for the strike was at 38%, while opposition to the strike was 43%.\u00a0Afterwards<\/strong><\/a>, support for the strike had risen 7% to 45%, while opposition to the strike had dropped 6% to 37%.<\/p>\n

On Twitter, political writer John Traynor provided a potent summary of why Lynch had been so effective at getting his points of view across to the public.<\/p>\n

First<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018Lynch knows that what he is saying is both factually correct and consistent. This contrasts with conservative voices who know what they are spouting is [a] pack of lies and drivel, and comically inconsistent.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Second<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018Lynch understands fully what he is talking about. His knowledge allows him to counter any derisory interruption. This contrasts with conservative voices who know only a few mendacious soundbites with no in depth knowledge, and this causes them to fall.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Third<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018Lynch speaks sincerely; he believes in all the points he makes. This contrasts with conservative voices who believe in nothing and are just playing a part for money.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Matthew Todd, author of the best-selling LGBT mental health book, \u2018Straight Jacket\u2019,\u00a0said<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0via Twitter that:<\/p>\n

\u2018Ive worked in the media alongside politicians for 25 years. Once you see how the super rich run everything solely for their own benefit you cannot unsee it. If people understood what lies in store for us they wouldn\u2019t be on strike, there would be a revolution\u00a0<\/em>#RailStrikes<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite this brief opening in permissible debate around the economy, if Lynch continues to be this effective, then the state-corporate media will revert to type and attempt to crush him, just as they did with Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n

The Guardian Is \u2018A Tool Of The British Establishment\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indeed, in a recent compelling\u00a0interview<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0with Matt Kennard of Declassified UK, Corbyn opened up about the experience he had gone through as Labour Party leader during which he had been the target of arguably the biggest ever propaganda blitz against a British political leader. He was particularly scathing of the Guardian which, long ago, may have been regarded by some as a reliable left-leaning newspaper:<\/p>\n

\u2018I have absolutely no illusions in the\u00a0Guardian, none whatsoever. My mum brought me up to read the\u00a0Guardian. She said, \u201cIt\u2019s a good paper you can trust\u201d. You can\u2019t. After their treatment of me,\u00a0I do not trust the\u00a0Guardian.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

He continued:<\/p>\n

\u2018There are good people who work in the\u00a0Guardian, there are some brilliant writers in the\u00a0Guardian, but as a paper, it\u2019s\u00a0a tool of the British establishment. It\u2019s a mainstream establishment paper. So, as long as everybody on the left gets it clear: when you buy the\u00a0Guardian, you\u2019re buying an establishment paper.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, the Guardian and BBC News were central to the establishment\u2019s cynical exploitation of antisemitism allegations to\u00a0kill Corbyn\u2019s chances of becoming Prime Minister<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018an analysis of the\u00a0Guardian\u2019s treatment of the time that I was leader of the party needs to be made because they and the BBC had more unsourced reporting of anti-semitic criticisms surrounding me than any other paper, including the\u00a0Mail, The\u00a0Telegraph\u00a0and the\u00a0Sun.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

As for the British media as a whole:<\/p>\n

\u2018We have a supine media in this country. The British self-confidence of saying we\u2019ve got the best media in the world, the best broadcasting in the world, the best democracy in the world. It\u2019s nonsense, utter, complete nonsense. We have a media that\u2019s supine, that self-censors, that accepts D-Notices, doesn\u2019t challenge them, and the vast majority of the mainstream media haven\u2019t lifted so much as a little finger in support or defence of Julian Assange.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Today, Labour has a new \u2018leader\u2019 who is trying as hard as possible to stifle left policies and voices within the party, dragging it relentlessly towards the right; or what Sir Keir Starmer calls the \u2018centre ground\u2019. In an Observer\u00a0opinion piece<\/strong><\/a>, \u2018Labour has now claimed the centre ground \u2013 and has shown it can win\u2019, this Blairite establishment stooge boasted:<\/p>\n

\u2018Since the horror of the last general election, we have rolled up our sleeves and focused on listening to the public and changing our party. We\u2019ve rooted out the poison of antisemitism, shown unshakeable support for Nato, forged a new relationship with business, shed unworkable or unaffordable policies and created an election machine capable of taking on the\u00a0<\/em>Conservatives<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. Being able to win again has taken more than two years of hard graft from all those who ache to see the transformation a Labour government would bring the country we love.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

As political writer Steve Topple\u00a0noted<\/strong><\/a>, Starmer\u2019s comments were largely \u2018vacuous dross and detached from reality\u2019. In particular:<\/p>\n

\u2018Labour has \u201cshed unworkable or unaffordable policies\u201d but with no clear reference to what these are. Clearly, it\u2019s those\u00a0<\/em>promises he made during the Labour leadership election<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. Remember those? The talk of nationalisation of industries and services? We can now categorically see that Starmer\u2019s pledges were nothing short of manipulation of party members. This is despite the fact that with things like\u00a0<\/em>rail renationalisation<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, the public consistently supports it.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

A \u2019Bent\u2019 System Of Government<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter Oborne, former political editor at the Spectator and former Daily Telegraph chief political commentator, recently\u00a0warned<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of the rising oligarchical nature of politics in the UK, whether Conservative or Labour:<\/p>\n

\u2018You would hope that in a well-managed democracy the purpose of political power was to challenge the super-rich, make sure they didn\u2019t get what they wanted. Under [Boris] Johnson, political power has been a vehicle for the super-rich to make sure that they do get what they want.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Oborne offered this damning verdict on our supposed \u2018free press\u2019:<\/p>\n

\u2018The second element of Johnson is that the media class and the political class have merged in Downing Street; they are the same thing. And so all the stuff which we as journalists get taught at journalism school \u2013 it\u2019s the task of the press to hold government to account, and there is a sort of separation of powers \u2013 is no longer the case. There has been a merger.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Oborne called Johnson \u2018the billionaire\u2019s bitch\u2019. Why? First, because Johnson was, before he announced his\u00a0resignation<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0as Tory leader on 7 July, dependent on billionaire donors to the Tory party who saw him \u2013 until recently, at least \u2013 as the best option to represent their interests:<\/p>\n

\u2018You can see what they want is access to power, it\u2019s contracts \u2013 we saw this with Covid when Tory donors were rewarded endlessly.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Second, because Johnson has curried favour with billionaire newspaper proprietors, such as the Barclay brothers, owners of the Telegraph, and Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Times and the Sun.<\/p>\n

In an\u00a0article<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0titled, \u2018Boris Johnson is finished. But will the rotten system that created him fall too?\u2019, Oborne pointed out:<\/p>\n

\u2018The Murdoch Press, Associated Newspapers and the Telegraph group control approximately three quarters of the newspaper reading market. These three groups have been central to Johnson\u2019s success.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Every title in all these groups supported Johnson\u2019s bid for the Tory leadership, his 2019 general election campaign, and through last month\u2019s vote of confidence. Throughout all of this they played down the corruption, fabrication, scandal, cronyism, law-breaking and incompetence of the Johnson government.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Oborne found some hope in democratic pressures at last having some effect:<\/p>\n

\u2018Very late in the day the reputational damage of sticking with Johnson has struck home. The newspapers, finally scared of their readers, are running for cover. On Wednesday, Rupert Murdoch\u2019s\u00a0Times\u00a0belatedly\u00a0<\/em>pulled the plug<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cThe prime minister has lost the confidence of his party and the country. He should quit now\u201d.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Faced with the prospect of crumbling support from even the right-wing press, together with multiple\u00a0resignations<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0across government, Johnson finally bowed to the inevitable and resigned as Tory leader, while remaining as Prime Minister until a new leader can be elected in the autumn.<\/p>\n

What will happen next? Oborne warns that nothing much will change:<\/p>\n

\u2018The global super-rich are looking for a British prime minister who will look after their interests without the reputational damage. Ex-chancellor Sunak, now the bookies\u2019 favourite, looks like their choice.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018A near-billionaire himself, he at least has no incentive to take bribes. But he\u2019s been at the heart of the bent Johnson system of government for almost three years<\/em>, repeating the prime minister\u2019s lies<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and tolerating his incompetence, bigotry and incessant sleaze.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Whether Sunak or someone else takes over,\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0Oborne:<\/p>\n

\u2018The next Tory leader will almost certainly pursue the same policies as Johnson.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018On Brexit. On civil liberties. On the Human Rights Act. The same English nationalism and cheap, ugly, vicious populism.\u2019\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

He added:<\/p>\n

\u2018Remember that all the leading candidates in the leadership contest served in Johnson\u2019s cabinet. They supported his policies, and in many cases\u00a0<\/em>repeated his lies.<\/em><\/a>\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

As for Keir Starmer, Knight Commander of the Order of Bath, Oborne is\u00a0scathing<\/a>, pointing out that the politician \u2018dishonestly\u2019 represented himself as coming from the left when bidding to become Corbyn\u2019s successor. Since Starmer was elected Labour leader, he has been \u2018trying to buy into the Blair model\u2019 of relying on donors, appeasing newspaper proprietors, \u2018ruthlessly\u2019 excluding the trade unions, and indeed\u00a0attacking the left<\/a>, notably Stop the War and any Labour MPs critical of Nato:<\/p>\n

\u2018He made a choice to define himself not against Boris Johnson, the billionaire\u2019s person. He decided to define himself as not being Jeremy Corbyn. That was the classic Blairite pivot. Blair chose to win by sucking up to Rupert Murdoch, and sucking up to the billionaires, and Starmer appears to be doing just the same thing.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Oborne predicts that, if Starmer ever becomes Prime Minister, all he would be is \u2018maybe a more scrupulous version of Boris Johnson\u2019; in other words, \u2018a slightly softer version of oligarchical politics.\u2019<\/p>\n

If the public is to get what it supports and deserves \u2013 not least a basic standard of living, and a rational and urgent response to the\u00a0climate crisis<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 we all need to take action now.<\/p>\n

11.7.22<\/strong><\/p>\n

_________<\/p>\n

also see:-<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The price of \u2018selective inattention\u2019 \u2013 Iraq, Libya and the climate apocalypse<\/a> \u2013 Media Lens<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    2.\u00a0Doubling down on double standards \u2013 the Ukraine propaganda blitz <\/a>– Media Lens<\/p>\n

    3.\u00a0The Media Lens Book of Obituaries<\/a> \u2013 Media Lens<\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The following article on the increasing merger of the state and media was first posted by Media Lens. \u00a0THE GREAT MERGER THE RISE OF OLIGARCHICAL POLITICS Millions of people in the UK are beset by insecurities and worries about the rising cost of living. Fuel and energy prices are escalating, variously blamed on Brexit, Covid,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1843,1861,1873,1846,1868,1862,1878,1876,1875,1877],"tags":[9020],"class_list":["post-21792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-capitalists-organise","category-alienation-self-determination","category-against-unionism","category-british-imperialism","category-against-imperialism","category-ideology-and-religion","category-england-against-unionism","category-ireland-against-unionism","category-scotland-against-unionism","category-wales-against-unionism","tag-author-media-lens"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":7258,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21792"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21798,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21792\/revisions\/21798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}